Canadian patent application No. 2,185,852, filed by G. Faber and R. Faber in 1996 and published Mar. 19, 1998, shows a snowshoe comprising a peripheral loop frame having front and rear crossbars, between which an intermediate monolithic decking made of plastic is supported. A harness, e.g. in the form of straps or laces, is provided at the front end portion of the intermediate decking, where a person's foot may be attached so as to allow the person to walk with the snowshoe, the forefoot pivoting alternately into and out of a toe hole provided in the decking, as known in the art A problem associated with such a snowshoe, is that the lateral stability of the foot is often poor, i.e. the foot may undesirably pivot about a substantially vertical axis on the snowshoe. Consequently, the foot and the snowshoe may become misaligned, hampering the walking movement of the person using the snowshoe.
To obviate such a problem, snowshoes have been provided with rigid transverse rods on which a rigid harness is hinged, the user's foot resting on the harness and the rod and consequently being guided in its pivotal displacement by the hinged attachment of the harness on the transverse rod, to prevent misalignment of the foot relative to the snowshoe. However, due to the rigidity of the transverse rod and since this rod becomes periodically loaded and unloaded with the person's weight during gait, accidental structural failure of either the rod or the snowshoe frame are likely to eventually occur under the rod being subjected to stress concentrations, especially when the snowshoe is used on uneven ground terrain. For example, if the snowshoe comes to rest mainly on a single point on the transverse rod, such as when the snowshoe bears on a pointed rock which is not covered by snow, then the stress concentrations on the transverse rod supporting the harness, and on the frame in the area supporting the transverse rod, can become very significant and can result in permanent deformation of the transverse rod and/or breakage of the transverse rod or the frame.
Canadian patent No. 993,468 issued in 1976 to W. N. Prater discloses a snowshoe including a webbing or lacing supporting a transverse rod located adjacent to and rearwardly of the front toe hole. The transverse rod extends short of the frame longitudinal side portions, the rod being provided at its extremities with eyelets that engage a portion of the snowshoe lacing exclusively destined to support the transverse rod. The transverse rod pivotally supports a harness or binding, to allow a foot operatively engaged in the harness to pivot about the transverse rod during gait. The foot is thus not prone to accidental and undesirable lateral shifting during gait, since its pivotal movement is guided by the foot harness being pivoted on the transverse rod. In the Prater patent, the fact that the transverse rod is not supported by the frame helps prevent undesirable stress concentrations from being exerted on the snowshoe frame, since the slight flexibility of the lacing can partly compensate locally uneven terrain to help prevent excessive stress concentrations.
However, a first disadvantage of the Prater snowshoe is that its assembly is heavy, is further complex and thus more expensive, due to the transverse rod which has to be attached to the lacing. Moreover, the metallic rod may be prone to corrosion, which is of course highly undesirable since snowshoes will often be subjected to humid or wet conditions. Specific anticorrosion metallic material has to be used, which is more expensive. Another disadvantage of the Prater snowshoe is that the rigid transverse rod will still be subjected to stress concentrations, due to the load of the person's foot on the rod and to the rigidity of the latter. This stress concentration is not likely to be as important than if the rod was directly attached to the snowshoe frame, but the stress on the rod per se will remain significant, due to its rigidity. The rigid rod may moreover induce important strain to the lacing linking it to the frame, under particularly important loads being applied on a single point of the rod.